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Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Bug: When posting SR Invoices - Insufficient Stock ErrorsDecember 19, 2007Updated 2/17/08 Bug: Last tested with Master Builder version 13.1.0.2 Update Note: This bug was documented in the Sage Knowledgebase on 2/6/08 with KB13441. The Service Receivables module (screen 11-2) is designed to handle the sale of parts from an inventory. Here is an interesting little bug that could drive you crazy if you didn't know how to deal with it. With a Service Receivable invoice, a part entered in the invoice details can be charged to the control inventory account. In this case, the part quantity on hand is reduced by the amount sold on the invoice. Master Builder checks the quantity in stock and will only allow the invoice to post if there is sufficient quantity to cover all of the parts listed on the invoice. If the invoice calls for more parts than are currently in inventory, an error indicating "insufficient stock" is presented to the user and the invoice is not posted. However, we have encountered a case where we get the "insufficient stock" error and we were not taking the parts from the inventory. This was a perplexing problem to say the least. It turned out that if the same part number is listed multiple times on the invoice - even if the items are not being taken from stock - the "insufficient stock" error comes up. Note in this example rows 1 and 4 both have the same part number listed.  When there is an attempt to post this record as an invoice, Master Builder will return the error "insufficient stock." We determined two solutions to this issue. The quick solution is to delete all of the part numbers from invoice details tab and then post. This works if you are not doing any reporting of sales by part number. Even then, you can use the alpha part number for reporting.  The second solution is more tedious and takes more time if there are a lot of invoice lines, but it conserves the part numbers in the invoice. First, sort the invoice details tab by the part number (This is a great little trick that can be done in a number of Master Builder grids. To sort by a column, left-click on the Part # column heading to highlight the column, then right-click in the highlighted area. Select on "Sort by Part # Column) Next combine quantities of lines with the same part number into a single line. Delete the duplicate lines. Post without an error!  (law) Labels: bug master builder service receivables sr inventory
posted by Web Master
at
8:28 AM
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Thursday, December 13, 2007
Tip: Quirky QueriesPut this under "stuff you don't know why it happens, you just want to fix it."Queries are one of the best features of Master Builder. In case you don't know, queries are found on most screens under either "File | Find" or - alternatively - by clicking on the binoculars icon. Queries are a way to get a list of records according to criteria you select - for example a list of AP invoices from the 4-2 screen. This information is then presented in a grid which can be drilled into for details or copied and pasted to a spreadsheet for further analysis. However, there are a couple of quirks with this process. Fortunately, these are easy to fix. Beginner: To create a query, go to a data entry screen such as 4-2 (AP Invoices) and click on "File | Find". Enter a new name (the name of a new query) in the blank field, and click [New]. This screen will take you through a series of five screens that allow you to identify the information you want to display. The screens - in order of appearance - are: Fields To Display - these are the fields that will appear on the grid after the search. Fields to Group By - these are the fields that will provide the first level of sort for the results. Each group has a subtotal. You are allowed a total of 3 fields for grouping. Fields to Sort By - these are the fields that provide the second level of sorting of the results (after the groupings). Fields to Select By - these are the fields with which you can control the search. For instance, if you want to be able to select AP invoices with an invoice date of 12/31/07, you would need to include the field "acpinv.invdte" in the Fields to Select By list. Selection Criteria - for each field in your Fields to Select list, you can pre-define your default values. A good example of this is to filter out all void AP invoices when you search for invoices. To do this, you would need to include "acpinv.status" in your Fields to Select list, and then in the Selection Criteria you would select "Between" for the comparison, and then put a default of 1 to 4 (Open, Review, Disputed, Paid invoices). The Issue - Intermediate: So here is the rub. You may be irritated by fact that after you spend the time to enter your default selection criteria in a new query, when you run the query - the defaults don't appear. Bummer. To fix this, immediately after you create a new query - before you run it - single click the new query name in the query list and click [Edit]. Then click [Next] through each of the five set up screens. Don't change anything. Viola! Next time you use the query, the selection criteria defaults will be where they belong. Related to this problem is the issue where queries that used to work suddenly and inexplicity crash. This takes you out of Master Builder in a particularly inelegant way. Usually, this condition is caused by someone starting to edit a query, deciding they don't want to, and cancelling out of the edit screen. Some people curse the system and try to re-create the query. No need. Just like above, single click the crashing query in the query list, click [Edit] and click [Next] through each of the five set up screens. This will fix the problem. Advanced: Queries are stored in the table "Qrylst.dbf" under each specific company directory. This means that if you have a set of really cool and useful queries that you have built up over the years and you start a brand new company (or get a new client) you must laboriously re-create each query manually. A simple solution is to copy the files qrylst.dbf, qrylst.cdx, qrylst.fpt from the company data directory that has the queries you want to the new company data directory. All of the queries you had in the original company will now be in the new company. Beware - if you already created any queries in your new company, they will be overwritten. It is also possible with a good tool such as Microsoft Visual Fox Pro to copy individual queries from one company to another in a selective way. Each record in qrylst.dbf represents a single query. The field "tblnme" will indicate which data screen the query will appear in. To move a specific query, copy the record in qrylst.dbf from the source company data directory to qrylst.dbf in the target company data directory. (law) Labels: master builder query crash
posted by Web Master
at
9:30 PM
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Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Tip: Those Pesky Image Files in Report DesignerCertain problems occur in using Master Builder where I don't have time or the interest in finding out why the problem exists or the most elegant solution, I just find a way to work around it. This is one of those problems.Anyone who had done any extensive work with the form designer probably has experienced the problem where a picture (image file) they use in a form design either doesn't appear in the form designer when imported into a form or, alternatively, does appear in the form designer but does not print. Worse yet, it will print on some user machines, but not others. A search of the Sage knowledge base (http://www.sagemasterbuilder.com/support/index.asp) provides an article, KB13027, but this article only deals with one potential cause of this issue and does not resolve the erratic behavior of the form designer with respect to image files. I haven't taken the time to figure out why this happens, but here is a simple way to consistently avoid the problem. This works regardless of the type of image file used - .bmp, .jpg, or .gif files. For any image file you use in a Master Builder form design or report form, copy the exact same file into the following four directories: X:\MB7\Report Forms X:\MB7\BMP C:\MB7\Report Forms C:\MB7\BMP where X:\ is the network drive where your Master Builder data resides. Yes, this does mean that sometimes you will need to copy the picture files to multiple user local machines and is a little bit of a pain to maintain, but it always works. (law) Labels: report writer form design bitmap pictures master builder
posted by Web Master
at
2:44 PM
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Monday, December 10, 2007
Tip: Open Checks from a Prior YearPrior Year Items to be reviewed before Closing a YearDuring the Closing Process at the end of the company's year, any entries to the Cash Accounts that have not been cleared during the Bank Reconciliation process are rolled over to the new year as open items. These items has a capital letter P in front of them with the original Journal Record number, the date, the Payee (if available) and the dollar amount. The closing process makes these checks available to be cleared on a future bank reconciliation, usually sometime within the next month or two. This is true for AP checks, Payroll checks, Fees, Deposits, and any other item that has been posted to the Cash account. At the close of the next company year, if these items from the prior year (with the letter P in front of them) have not cleared the bank, they must be adjusted prior to the next year end closing. If the item is a check, contact the Vendor or Employee to re-issue the funds that are due to them. If they cannot be contacted, please review the rules and guidelines for each state regarding Unclaimed Property (Illinois rules available at http://treasurer.il.gov/programs/cash-dash/pdf/act-rules.pdf). If the item is a duplicate payment - perhaps made on-line and with a check - an adjustment is required prior to the closing. If your company is on a calendar year, this can be reviewed after the November bank reconciliation is complete prior to the year end close. For non-calendar Fiscal Year ends, review the open items after performing the bank reconciliation for the eleventh month of the Fiscal Year. Check all open items to see if any have the letter P in front of them indicating they are from the Prior Year. Review each item to determine if they should be re-issued or an adjusting entry should be made. After all the adjustments have been made, return to the Bank Reconciliation screen (1-5), enter the Cash Account GL number and the Statement Ending Date for the last day of the eleventh month of the year. Clear the original item from the prior year against the adjusting entry for a net of zero. Confirm that the Statement Beginning Balance and Statement Ending Balance are the same. Trial Save and Print. After a successful print out has been made and the balances are confirmed, Final Save to clear these items from the Bank Reconciliation. The Beginning and Ending Balance must be the same and should match the Eleventh Month ending bank statement. In general, Master Builder will allow an open item to roll forward only one year. The item becomes a Prior Year record. If the item is still open at the end of the next year, it will not roll over again as a Prior-Prior Year. Instead, it drops off the bank reconciliation requiring additional effort prior to completing the next Bank Reconciliation. Make appropriate adjustments prior to the year end close to avoid the items 'dropping off' the list. (cmw) Labels: master builder open checks prior year
posted by Catherine Wendt
at
3:58 PM
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Sunday, December 9, 2007
The History of Master Builder SoftwareSage Master Builder (SMB) software has an interesting history. Like many software products that serve specific industries, Master Builder was conceived by someone in the industry who was just trying to run their business better.Dan Smith - the founder of Master Builder - is a great story teller and I have heard him tell the story of Master Builder's origins several times. I cannot give it justice here and I won't try, but the basic start of Master Builder was around 1980, give or take a couple of years. Dan was a general contractor based in the San Francisco area and he wanted a way to run his business better. He thought that the new emerging personal computers were potentially a good solution, so he went out an bought an Apple II computer and tried to find software to run his business on it. Finding that there was little or no software appropriate for running a construction business, Dan did what any good entrepreneur would do and set out to write his own. He wrote the original Master Builder with great knowledge of contracting and self-taught knowledge of computer programming. The software he ended up with was very consistent in applying construction logic to a computer program. Soon, Master Builder was moved from the Apple platform to the IBM PC platform and Dan started selling the software to other contractors as "Master Builder by Omware." His primary sales method was training local bookkeepers and accountants on the software and then letting them apply their business and construction knowledge at their clients to use the software effectively. This group of advisers was the key to Master Builder success around the country and Dan was very good about developing the knowledge base of the advisers and supporting them in their own businesses. However, the catch twenty-two issue was that an advisor would sell a few copies of Master Builder and then start working closely with the clients that bought them. Soon, the advisor became too busy to add more clients and no longer sold the software. This would make the client happy, the advisor successful, but was very limiting the income of Master Builder. Dan struggled with this issue the entire time I knew him as the owner of Master Builder. However, Dan had great integrity and never wavered in his support of the advisers even when it cost him money. What it did do was build a team of advisers across the country with knowledge of the construction business and his software unlike anyone else in the software industry. In 1994, Dan made the decision to convert Master Builder to Microsoft Windows. Software vendors were all looking at this possibility. Some thought that MS Windows was an inferior operating system for business software (and it was at the time) - but they underestimated the demand for the GUI (graphical user interface) by users. Dan saw that this was the future and made the determination early to move from the PC DOS system to Windows. The interesting thing about his decision was that he decided to completely rewrite Master Builder rather than just "move" the DOS software. The move to Windows was a struggle and lasted several years before a complete and stable product was released. I started working with Master Builder in February of 1995 and my training class was on the first Windows release of the software. Dan Smith taught the class himself because no one else knew much about the software. I installed the very first production installation of Master Builder 6 - the first Windows version - at a Naperville, Illinois contractor in September of 1995. The official release of the software was in March of 1996. The Windows version of Master Builder was the first on the market in the construction industry, but Omware still struggled with the sales process. They had a good product but there were many other products in the market and the king of the hill at the time was Timberline. Timberline was perceived as a more sophisticated and bigger product although they had not yet made a complete transition to the Windows operating system. At this time, Dan brought in some investors and made a real effort to get a larger market share. True to Dan's character and dedication to his advisor channel, he gave every advisor $1,000 in stock in Omware when he began the big push to grow the company. In 2001, Master Builder was purchased by Intuit. The deal brokered by Dan Smith was incredible for all of the investors. The purchase price by Intuit was 6 or 7 times the current revenue of Master Builder. One of the key factors - according to the key note address by Scott Cook, the founder of Intuit - was the expert advisor network that Master Builder had built around the country. Unfortunately, Intuit's actions over the following years did not match their rhetoric. The attractive element of Master Builder for Intuit was the possibility of moving contractors up from Intuit's flagship product, Quickbooks, to a more sophisticated tool for contractors, Master Builder. Intuit was tossing around numbers of 25, 50, or 100 Million in sales of Master Builder within five years. At the time they purchased the software, Master Builder had sales was in the 6 to 7 million range. Dan Smith stayed on for a couple of years as vice president of the Intuit construction division that held Master Builder, but he was then replaced by Carol Novello. With the replacement of Dan Smith came a total abandonment of integrity and support of the expert advisor network that was originally developed by Omware. The message was "sell at all costs" and the politics were brutal. It was sad to see a weak and inept management team at Intuit dismantle the expert advisor network that had built up over the years. Many of the people I worked with personally ended up taking jobs at clients or moving to other positions or other products. A few advisers survived and some thrived, but not many. Significant development on Master Builder virtually halted on the product during the five years that Intuit owned it. They did release an enterprise version of the product which was simply the same software with a client/server database instead of a file server database structure, and the product did not do well. Intuit did, however, get their new licensing in place right away which shifted the traditional model of concurrent licenses that Master Builder had been using for 20 years to a per seat model. This caused tremendous angst in the user community as Intuit tried to force users to buy a software license for every computer in their office, field, and home so two people could use it conveniently. I spent hours dealing with this with my own client base. Ultimately, Intuit shifted back to the concurrent seat model, but the damage was done. In May of 2006, Sage Software purchased Master Builder from Intuit*. Interestingly, this took place not long after Sage had purchased one of Master Builder's primary competitors, Timberline. Sage is much more savvy about how to sell to vertical markets and has made some significant and much needed improvements to the product. For instance, the licensing is less intrusive on the system, they have added drill down to the reporting, and fixed many of the bugs that had been plaguing Master Builder for the years that Intuit owned it. Also important to the long-term viability of Master Builder, Sage is beginning to develop a true knowledge base for users accessible through the Sage web site. Personally, I am encouraged by the steps Sage has taken so far. In 2005, I was guessing that Master Builder had only a few more years of life left and Syscon was actively looking for a product to move their clients to. That fear has gone away and Sage Master Builder Release 13 is one of the best products on the market for a contractor. (law) References: * Sage Purchase of Master Builder Labels: master builder history sage
posted by Web Master
at
10:28 AM
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